Varney the Vampire eBook

“Yes, yes,” he said, as he paused upon
the margin of the wood, to the confines of which he,
or what seemed to be he, had once been chased by Marchdale
and the Bannerworths—­“yes, the very
sight of that man recalls all the frightful pageantry
of a horrible tragedy, which I can never—­never
forget. Never can it escape my memory, as a horrible,
a terrific fact; but it is the sight of this man alone
that can recall all its fearful minutiae to my mind,
and paint to my imagination, in the most vivid colours,
every, the least particular connected with that time
of agony. These periodical visits much affect
me. For months I dread them, and for months I
am but slowly recovering from the shocks they give
me. ‘But once more,’ he says—­’but
once more,’ and then we shall not meet again.
Well, well; perchance before that time arrives, I may
be able to possess myself of those resources which
will enable me to forestall his visit, and so at least
free myself from the pang of expecting him.”

He paused at the margin of the wood, and glanced in
the direction of Bannerworth Hall. By the dim
light which yet showed from out the light sky, he
could discern the ancient gable ends, and turret-like
windows; he could see the well laid out gardens, and
the grove of stately firs that shaded it from the
northern blasts, and, as he gazed, a strong emotion
seemed to come over him, such as no one could have
supposed would for one moment have possessed the frame
of one so apparently unconnected with all human sympathies.

“I know this spot well,” he said, “and
my appearance here on that eventful occasion, when
the dread of my approach induced a crime only second
to murder itself, was on such a night as this, when
all was so still and calm around, and when he who,
at the merest shadow of my presence, rather chose
to rush on death than be assured it was myself.
Curses on the circumstances that so foiled me!
I should have been most wealthy. I should have
possessed the means of commanding the adulation of
those who now hold me but cheaply; but still the time
may come. I have a hope yet, and that greatness
which I have ever panted for, that magician-like power
over my kind, which the possession of ample means
alone can give, may yet be mine.”

Wrapping his cloak more closely around him, he strode
forward with that long, noiseless step which was peculiar
to him. Mechanically he appeared to avoid those
obstacles of hedge and ditch which impeded his pathway.
Surely be had come that road often, or he would not
so easily have pursued his way. And now he stood
by the edge of a plantation which in some measure
protected from trespassers the more private gardens
of the Hall, and there he paused, as if a feeling
of irresolution had come over him, or it might be,
as indeed it seemed from his subsequent conduct, that
he had come without any fixed intention, or if with
a fixed intention, without any regular plan of carrying
it into effect.